Posts Filed Under ‘Gadgets’
Alex Payne on the iPad · "The iPad leaves me with the feeling that Apple’s interests and values going forward are deeply divergent from my own. The future of personal computing that the iPad shows us is both seductive and dystopian. It’s not a future I want to bring into my home." al3x on the iPad. Read it. · January 28th, 2010, 12 comments
iPad First Impressions · Based solely on live blogs and a choppy audio feed: Terrible name, gorgeous device, great price point. I may be an Apple critic, but I'm not made of stone--this thing is beautiful. Instantly my Kindle seems like a joke. Kottke may be right: The Kindle app plus Instapaper installed on the iPad may very well be a much better reading and browsing experience than the Kindle itself, plus you get everything else it does. Here's Apple's official iPad page. And you? · January 27th, 2010, 34 comments
BillShrink hits it out of the park with a handy infographic which compares the cost and features of the current generation of smartphones: the Nexus One, the Palm Pre, the Motorola Droid, and the iPhone 3GS.
Looking at this you realize 1.) there's no clear winner in the bunch feature-wise and 2.) we all spend a ridiculous amount of money on mobile phones and service. My only nitpick with this chart is that the T-Mobile/Nexus One "Average Usage" plan should be listed at $79.99 a month, not $89.99 (unless they're counting taxes and fees). Update: BillShrink has updated this graphic to correct prices. Head inside and click to enlarge the big picture to check it out.
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Nexus One Flash Impressions · Google announced the Nexus One phone today, which is on sale from Google here. My current contract is up, I'm sick of living with Edge, and I don't want to depend on good enough data coverage for Skype, so I bought one with the T-Mobile plan. As a former iPhone user and soon-to-be-former G1 user, I'm excited about getting a thin and light phone with replaceable battery and a true headphone jack. I'm a huge fan of the trackball in general, so I'm loving that the Nexus One's trackball doubles as a notification system; however, I do fear I'll miss the G1's awesome flip-out keyboard more than "never." I mostly use my smartphone to email/text/Twitter, so I'm looking forward to speaking email with voice input, multiple Gmail account and Undo support. More Nexus One goodness as I discover it... now, to wait for FedEx. · January 5th, 2010, 7 comments
The Decade You Fell in Love with Your DVR · Over on PVRblog today, I got to briefly explain how TiVo changed television for me, alongside some of my favorite web folks. Caterina has my favorite quote: "It's not hard to find someone to sleep with, it's hard to find someone you'd WANT to sleep with. It's not hard to find something to watch, it's hard to find something GOOD to watch." Yup, the 2000s were the decade of DVR. · December 29th, 2009, 2 comments
Jeff Bezos on Reading in the Bathtub · "I put my Kindle in a one-gallon Ziploc bag, and it works beautifully. It’s much better than a physical book, because obviously if you put your physical book in a Ziploc bag you can’t turn the pages. But with Kindle, you can just push the buttons." [NY Times via SvN] · December 6th, 2009, 4 comments
I'm not dead. I've just moved into a new place where there is no internet connection yet, which is the equivalent of dead when you work and live online. Up until now I've resisted "rooting" my Android phone because I didn't want to go down the iPhone jailbreak road. (A major reason I have Android is so I don't have to jailbreak my device to get it to do something interesting!) But desperate times call for desperate measures. Living somewhere with no computer internet connection is a really good reason to root your Android phone. With a rooted phone, you can tether your Android device to your computer and get some internet love wherever you are. (There are quite a few other good reasons to root Android, too, not the least of which is speed boosts and early Donut access.)
If you're paying attention and reading the instructions, the rooting process isn't that difficult. I made the mistake of trying this out without my phone's USB cable (which was still packed away in some box) and in a loud sports bar during the first Chargers game of the season, with one eye on my screen and the other on my beer. Things didn't go so well. This morning I was able to finish up the process and get tethering working just fine. Here's what (and what NOT) to do when you root your Android phone.
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As I was finishing up work last night, I accidentally knocked a half-full glass of Diet Coke over and got some in my keyboard. Argh! I shook it out and went on my way, but then this morning 7's and 8's were mysteriously inserting themselves into words, and the spacebar was only working intermittently.
A spill doesn't necessarily mean keyboard death, but resuscitation can take some elbow grease. Unplug the keyboard (or for wireless models, remove the batteries), break out the screwdriver and take that baby apart. It can take some time; my Logitech has at least two dozen screws holding it together. Lay out the pieces one by one and wipe them down with a slightly-damp cloth to get off any sticky residue. Use a dry paper towel to mop up drops. If you've got compressed air handy, this is a great time to blow out any dust, too.
When all the parts are dry as a bone, carefully reassemble them. All's well for me now; I'm typing this very post on the keyboard. Here are some photos of my keyboard's innards from this morning's clean-up.
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Over at Lifehacker this morning I had the chance to do a navel-gazing tour through my laptop bag and show off all the stuff I take with me when I travel. The only truly unusual item I carry is the first iPod I ever bought, back in 2003--a 20GB second-generation brick of a thing. The battery can no longer hold a charge long enough to serve as a portable music player, but it works just fine plugged in as a hard drive, so I use it as a backup drive while I'm on the road for more than a few days.
I hadn't taken this iPod out of its iSkin in years and looked at just how clunky it really is. Here are some more photos of this antique. (I really wasn't kidding about that whole Last Year's Model thing.)
When you love technology, it's natural to lust after the latest gadgets and gear available on the market, even if what you've got already does everything you need. But if you decide not to give in and get that iPhone 3G or netbook, you can feel like you've fallen behind, like you're being cheap, like you're missing out. Truth is, passing on buying the newest model is a decision to brag about.
So I'm thrilled that my pal Anil Dash launched a new site this Earth Day called Last Year's Model, where technophiles can take pride in sticking with the gear they already own, even if it's been around for a year or two (or seven). While I'm guilty of running on the gadget consumer treadmill myself (Android phone and Kindle, anyone?), I'm happy that I've passed on the latest MacBook, a netbook, the Wii, and the iPhone 3G. Join me, will you? Tweet or blog a testimonial to the trusty gadget you passed on upgrading and include the #lastyears hash tag to get included on the site. See Anil's full announcement for more on Last Year's Model.
iPhone 3.0 Gets Copy and Paste and Then Some · Apple's finally caving and adding basics like copy and paste and proper MMS support to the iPhone operating system's third iteration, they announced today, plus a few other interesting goodies which catch it up to Android and then some. The iPhone still won't run background processes like Android can, but if they implement push notifications well maybe they won't have to. Yay for innovation and competition that leads to better products. · March 17th, 2009, 6 comments
Cheap and tiny netbook computers are so very tempting in this crappy economy, since they promise the full computing experience in a compact, throw-in-your-messenger-bag package for less than $400. The idea of a netbook got under my skin because I want a light computer for traveling that can live in the kitchen and living room for cooking and couch-surfing when I'm home. In the throes of my netbook lust, recently I asked my Twitter followers if they had a netbook and if it was worth it. That tweet drew a whopping 243 passionate replies.
Most people said they LOVED! LOVED! LOVED! their netbook, and many said they make great gifts for teens, parents, and spouses who don't need a beefy system. Some complained about the tiny keyboard and screen, short battery life, and lack of performance. Of all the netbook owners who identified which models they owned (77), the ASUS Eee PC was the most popular (33 owners), followed by the Acer Aspire (17), then the Dell Mini 9 (9) and Samsung NC10 (8). Here's the full breakdown, in pretty colors--green for pros, and red for cons.
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Amazon's announcement of the Kindle 2 e-reader has book-lovers in a tizzy again, wondering how anyone could give up timeless paper-based books for the electronic version. Thing is, no one has to give up anything. I've got shelves of books and a Kindle, and I'm reading more than ever--mostly because of the Kindle.
Someone who's never actually read a book on the Kindle focuses on the things you can't do with it. Your favorite author can't autograph a book on the Kindle. You can't dog-ear pages. (Though you can virtually bookmark pages on the Kindle, the autograph point is true.)
But that same someone is often surprised by the stuff you can do with a Kindle book. When you encounter a word you haven't seen before, you can look it up in the built-in dictionary in two clicks. (As a vocabulary nerd, this is the feature I love most.) You can highlight sections of the book as you read which get saved to a text file on the device. Then you can import the text of those paragraphs to your computer for stowing away in your favorite note-taking application or to include in your book journal or blog review.
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